Q is for Queen Amidala

My favourite character from Star Wars is R2D2 (obviously - since he is the saviour of everyone time and time again), but if I were to go to a Star Wars fancy dress party I would go as Queen Amidala. I loved the outfit and lipstick from the film:

You can actually buy the official fancy dress outfit (this is so great):

And the headress:

I did share my urge to buy the Queen Amidala Lego Star Wars minifigure on my L post the other day, but I think she is worth showing off again. Priced at £32.95 from FireStar Toys means that she will be staying on my wishlist for some time to come. 

Then I got to wondering what else is out there............(click on the pictures for the links).........

If you spot any others, please let me know - I might start a Pinterest board!

It's a Book - Project 52 Week 36

Pride & Prejudice......

'Elizabeth obeyed, and running into her own room for her parasol, attended her noble guest down stairs'

Bring me Sunshine........

So, it looks like I'm a sucker for a 365 project - I finished my 365 self portrait project the other day, and am straight into another one. This time, I'm not the subject (thank God), and I'm allowing myself some freedom so I don't have to take a photo every single day if I'm not in the mood - as long as I have 365 at the end of the year, I'm happy. 

Having discovered Obitsu dolls this year, I just knew I had to create one myself. They are so much better than Barbie! So, meet Sunshine. She has a Parabox child head with a sunshine yellow wig, on a 27cm 2-part soft bust white body. I tried her head on the smaller 21cm and 23cm bodies, but I much prefer the shape of the 27cm - it's more curvy, and it's much easier to buy clothes for.

I plan on making some other outfits for her at some point, and converting a cardboard box into a house (well, a room at least). This will make photos easier too, as I'll always have a good backdrop for them. Not quite sure how this will turn out yet, but it will be a work in progress for a good while. I've got quite a few little toys I've collected for props and photos generally, and I'm planning on using lots with her over the year too. 

I already know Sunshine loves nature, and I'm sure she shares quite a few of my other interests too, which is handy! If I do run low on ideas I plan on creating some photos for Flickr challenge groups, like Macro Mondays or the These Moments Challenge group, to keep up my interest. 

I hope you enjoy seeing what she gets up to this year. Please feel free to comment or ask any questions. It can get a bit lonely here sometimes!!

B is for.....Blythe and Basaak dolls

I've recently started playing with dolls again. That's not as weird as it sounds. Well, maybe it is, but lots of other people are partaking in this pastime too, and they are adult toys. No, not that sort of adult toys - they are just not really meant for children, more for adult collectors. Sounds like an excuse for grown up girls to play dress ups with their dollies again? Yes, it probably is. But what is wrong with that?!! I'm using mine for photography props, so it is art really.

I first saw Blythe dolls on Flickr last year and I found them intriguing to look at, if not a little ugly to be honest. I'm not sure why I suddenly wanted one, but back in January I started researching them online and discovered that they could be bought on eBay. The original Blythe dolls from 1972 fetch anything from £400 to well over £1000 (!!!), but the new versions are somewhat more affordable thankfully. 

So I bought my first Blythe - this custom beauty:

It was her eyeshadow that really sold her to me:

Once I'd started I felt compelled to buy more and maybe even think about customising one myself in the future, but even though they are much cheaper than the originals, they still aren't exactly on Barbie's price level, so I dug deeper and discovered Blythe clone dolls (Basaak and Blybe dolls). Now, they are a little controversial in the Blythe world because they are basically copycat dolls, but they also have fans in their own right, and they are much more affordable for people like me who don't have loads of cash to spend. 

I found a gorgeous custom Basaak doll on eBay and she came all the way from Thailand for me. 

Again, she has stunning eyeshadow! 

Once you have a good look at her you can see that she isn't of the same high quality as Blythe herself, but she is just as pretty in photos, and a nice addition to my growing collection. I think my Blythe is still a little wary of her though: 

Love is in the Air Week - Day 5

Barbie and Ken; a relationship that has more or less stood the test of time, although I understand they did have a rocky patch back in 2004 (I am not kidding - go check out Wikipedia!!).

In A Row - Project 52

This photo turned out to be a total pain to take - I could only find one complete pair of my old Barbie shoes (luckily bought these pairs from the local secondhand toy shop), the dolls kept falling over, the desk lamp I was using for light fell on the floor so the bulb broke, and my knees hurt from trying to get in the right position. Moan over. 

I intended to just have the shoes in a row, but thought the legs looked better. I used polaroid effect and added a slight matte border using Picnik.

Getting a little obsessed with Barbie shoes; on the pretence that they are only props for a photograph.